Modern Slave Owners Docked $1 Million by Judge

Illegal Immigration and the Return of Slavery to America detailed, among others, the story of two Indonesian housekeepers who were literally enslaved by a wealthy Long Island couple. A federal judge recently awarded the two housekeepers almost one million dollars in back wages.

Compensation has followed liberation.

Judge Arthur Spatt said Friday the maids were entitled to double their unpaid wages because they were abused while working around the clock for Varsha and Mahender Sabhnani.

The victims have testified that they were beaten, slashed with knives and compelled to take freezing showers for such misdeeds as sleeping late in what prosecutors had said amounted to a "modern-day slavery" case.

The judge awarded the housekeepers a total of more than $936,000 — at least $700,000 more than the Sabhnanis' lawyers considered reasonable.

The Muttowntown couple was convicted in December of charges including forced labor. Varsha Sabhnani has been sentenced to 11 years in prison, her husband to 3 years and 4 months.